Hospitals blamed for improper disposal of biomedical wastes Times of India On 5.10.2018 Trichy

Hospitals blamed for improper disposal of biomedical wastes

Times of India  On 5.10.2018 Trichy

CITY

Balajee C R | TNN |
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Hospitals blamed for improper disposal of biomedical wastes

Oct 5, 2018, 00:42 IST
Cleared/435 Words

Trichy: Several private hospitals and clinics in the city are not been following due procedure in disposing of biomedical waste, consumer rights activists have claimed. Corroborating their claims, district collector K Rajamani said that he had been getting several complaints regarding improper disposal of medical wastes by some hospitals. However, doctors have denied the claims.

According to experts, generally, biomedical wastes constitute almost 85% non-infectious waste, 10% infectious, and the remaining 5% hazardous or radioactive. Some of them are biodegradable, while some aren’t. Doctors warned that improper disposal of biomedical wastes could lead to breakout of several diseases.
Last week, the Tamil Nadu Consumer Federation filed a complaint with collector Rajamani about the improper way of disposing biomedical waste by hospitals during the quarterly consumer meeting. “We’ve been receiving several complaints that most of the hospitals and clinics in the city have been disposing biomedical waste along with the domestic garbage and some times even at Uyyakondan canal,” consumer rights activist and president of the federation, M Sekaran said.
Rajamani said that he had been receiving such complaints from others as well. “I wouldn’t say that improper biomedical disposal has been happening at an alarming rate, but a handful of hospitals have been engaging in that. It’s an hazardous practice. Among those, a few of the hospitals are from within the city and few are on the outskirts,” he said.
The collector added that surveillance and probe would be held at hospitals in the city and if they were found to be not engaging in proper way of disposing the clinical waste, strict action would be taken against them.
The standard procedure followed in Trichy district is that biomedical wastes -- based on the categories -- are segregated and dumped into four different coloured (yellow, blue, red and white) bins. An agency, Medicare Enviro Systems, collects these wastes from the hospitals on a daily basis and does incineration at its incinerator at Sengipatti. Around 200 hospitals are said to have tied up with Medicare Enviro Systems, which receives around 500kg to 600kg of medical waste from Trichy district on a daily basis.

However, doctors in the city denied the allegations and said that Trichy is one of the top cities when it comes to adhering to proper disposal of biomedical waste. “Trichy is a pioneer in terms of how biomedical wastes should be disposed of in the right way,” former president of Indian Medical Association, Trichy, M S Ashraf said.

A representative from Medicare Enviro Systems though said that only 20% to 30% of hospitals did the segregation procedure efficiently by dumping the wastes as per the colour codes.

Vox pop:

Dr M A Aleem, neurologist

All of the doctors know how hazardous radioactive and chemical wastes from a hospital are – so all hospitals should pay extra emphasis for proper disposal of biomedical waste.

N Ravichandran,

corporation commissioner
So far, I’ve not heard of complaints about improper disposal of biomedical wastes by hospitals and clinics within the city. If there’s a specific complaint, I would immediately call for an inspection

Graphic points

Categories of biomedical wastes segregation under

colour codes

Yellow: human anatomical waste, animal anatomical waste, soiled waste, expired or discarded medicines, chemical waste, micro and other clinical lab waste and chemical liquid waste

Red: Contaminated waste (recyclable) like catheters, urine bags, syringes without needles etc.

White: Waste sharps including metals

Blue: Glassware

Improper way of disposing biomedical waste could lead to breakout of following diseases
(according to doctors)

1. Hepatitis
2. Dengue
3. AIDS
4. Cholera
5. Typhoid
6. Encephalitis
7. Soft tissue infections
8. Malaria